Miasmah Norway レコード& CD

Review: Deaf Center's debut LP gets a 20-year anniversary reissue on CD, pairing the original 2005 album with 20 minutes of unreleased material from the same sessions. Originally out on Type, Pale Ravine marked the first full-length by Erik K Skodvin and Otto A Totland, who've since carved solo paths via Sonic Pieces. Drifting between chamber composition, shadowy electronics and the hiss of old tape, the record draws on their Norwegian roots and personal family histories. Grainy textures, ghostly pianos and wind-blown field recordings conjure a mood somewhere between forgotten reels of silent film and weather-worn Nordic folklore.

Review: Collected by his friends and colleagues - Erik K. Skodvin and Dave Kajganich - The Last Sunset of the Year is as heartbreaking as it is beautiful and breathtaking. A double album of posthumous work from experimental composer Marcus Fjellstrom, the music here was written and produced during the seminal artist's tenure as composer for the first season of ABC anthology series, The Terror. Many pieces have been made available for the first time on this collection, and as the sleeve notes explain, the idea was to present the tracks as a standalone album, rather than a companion piece as soundtracks usually are. It certainly works. While it's possible to determine these bits were written for a supernatural show, so many are capable of stopping you dead in your tracks on their own terms. Quietly powerful contemporary classical, ambient and drone.

Review: Starting at 'Dawn' and closing on 'Dusk', this is the arrestingly cyclical debut record from Polish multi-instrumentalist and composer Olga Anna Markowska. Deploying zither, cello, electronics and occasional wordless etheric voice, Markowska makes a slow work of the ethereal idiom, threshing her inspirations from a desire to "reconnect with (the cello), an instrument I've known intimately since childhood." For unexplained reasons, Markowska had to take time away from said extra luthier's limb for a limbo period of two years, in which new breathing space for creativity was to be found. The intense lulls and drastic highs heard here are a testament to this theme of reignition.

Review: A new chapter in the 'zen music for disturbed souls' series, Erik K. Skodvin adds to his legacy as alter-ego Svarte Greiner with another stunning EP that has plenty of layers to dive into, albeit on the surface seems constructed in an ultra-minimalistic way. Understanding the nuances takes a little background reading, but before that let's talk sounds - reverse out fragments of cello, electric-acoustic improvisation, sparse, dark, almost bleak and certainly a little but eerie. If that sounds intriguing enough, the process behind it should seal the deal. 'Devolving Trust' is actually a live recording, captured in the depths o the Schneider Brewery, Berlin. A setting the producer himself describes as "wet and hollow" with "long reverb", it's aural effect defines the music that's here. 'Devolve' then takes those tones and rethinks, retouches and reorganises them with similar gravitas.